Acquisition costs hurt Performance Sports earnings

But Exeter firm likes its baseball, hockey market share

By Bob Sanders

Published: August 19, 2014

Performance Sports Group Ltd., formerly known as Bauer Performance Sports, didn’t make much of a profit in its most recent quarter, due to its acquisition earlier this year of the baseball and softball lines of Easton-Bell Sports. But the Exeter-based company’s sales jumped and shareholders now have a bigger and more diversified company.

PSG posted a net income of $270,000, or 1 cent a share, for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, which ended May 31. For the same quarter of 2013, the company earned $6.1 million.

The 2014 numbers were lower because of the $330 million acquisition of the Easton lines, a deal that turned the company, mainly known for its hockey and lacrosse equipment, into the world’s leading equipment supplier for most baseball equipment.

It also shifted sales from Canada more into the United States, and the company launched an IPO both to finance the acquisition so that it stock would be traded on New York Exchange in addition to its previous Canadian listing.

“With the acquisition complete, we now hold the No. 1 North American market share in diamond sports and No. 1 worldwide market share in hockey,” said Kevin Davis, president and CEO of Performance Sports Group.

This article appears in the August 22 2014 issue of New Hampshire Business Review